Phils Looked Classic Philly Last Night, the Cole Hamels era is IN, the Peter Forsberg era is OUT...PLUS, an American Idol Tidbit

In typical Philadelphia sports fashion, they get you high on excitement and then knock you down hard. After winning nine in a row, I was excited to watch the Phils go for a double digit win streak for the first time in at least 15 years against the 78-year old Tom Glavine and the Mets last night. After dinner out with the family and some bedtime stories for the kids, I turned on the game, hoping that the Phils might have edged ahead by a run or two. 10-0 Mets. The good news was that Bobby Abreu was in the process of earning an all important walk. Bottom line: Phils are back to where they started this series, but with all momentum from the nine gamer gone in the wind. They need to immediately get back on the horse and win the rubber game tonight. This is an important start early in the year for a young kid like Gavin Floyd, who is going up against the also 78-year old (i.e., savvy veteran) Steve Trachsel).

Speaking of the Philberts, they called up Cole Hamels yesterday. This kid has a chance to be a bonfide #1 starter. The Hamels era begins Friday in Cincinnati. Look for him to be in the rookie of the year conversation this year. His stuff is electric, and was was virtually unhittable in Triple A. As long as he stays out of bar fights (he broke his hand in one two years ago), this kid could be amazing.

While Philadelphia ushers in one superstar, one other is in bad shape. Peter Forsberg needs ligament surgery on both ankles, and will miss half of the regular season next year. For a guy who when healthy is the best in hockey, but has not been completely healthy since donning the orange and black, could this be the beginning of the wheels literally coming off the bus? My guess is yes.

Speaking of hockey, remember how I said that the Stanley Cup playoffs are the greatest professional sports playoff format, and how exciting the NHL playoffs. Clearly I had not yet seen this year’s second round of the playoffs. All these series are OVER. Except maybe Edmonton/San Jose, which had a great three overtime thriller last night, with Edmonton becoming only the 5th of 8 remaining teams to win a game in this round, despite the fact that everyone has had three tries at it. That’s right, three of the series are over at 3-0. That is about as exciting as watching paint dry.

I do not watch American Idol. Not that I think it is a bad show, it is just that in my priority order of stuff to do, it comes in after stuff like chasing my three year old back to bed for the 23rd time of the night. But I do know one thing. America is ready for a guy with all gray hair to be its American Idol no more than it is ready for $5 a gallon gasoline. This is not a knock on having gray hair. After all, my hair is in a race to see if it can turn gray before it falls out. Or his singing ability, stage presence or anything else. I am just telling you that this is a popularity contest and America resonates to good looking, young, and NOT GRAY. Look at this guy, he looks like a Vegas lounge singer, and one on the way down at that. It would be like a really ugly girl winning on American Idol, it just is not going to happen. What? That Fantasia girl won a couple seasons ago? Never mind what I said, scratch this paragraph. I will stick to putting my son back to bed. It is bad enough I cannot handicap sports, I should not even try to guess what will happen on shows I don’t watch.